Problem of "ethnic" and "spatial" in the regional historical narrative: the case of Kabardino-Balkaria in the light of ethnogenomics data

While approaching to constructing a general history of Kabardino-Balkaria, the professional community of historians of the region should develop a general idea of the relationship between differentiating (ethnic) and integrating (socio-spatial) dimensions of the regional historical process. The proposed paper aims to create a preliminary idea of the relationship between “ethnic” and “spatial” in the history of Kabardino-Balkaria based on the systematization and analysis of data on the gene pool of modern Kabardians and Balkars. A review of the results of studies in phylogenetic and gene geography showed that on the genetic map of the North Caucasus, they form a distinct inter-ethnic area or cluster of populations characterized by the internal heterogeneity of their gene pools and by the mutual proximity of genetic structures. Its formation results from the territorial proximity of ethno-social units and a dense network of regular social interactions between them, which was reproduced over a long historical time. The historical narrative, having the formation of this area as its subject, should be guided by the identification of all factors and forms of social change that are not confined to the boundaries of the past and the boundaries of the ethnic group. The first step in the entering of particular ethno-histories into the general historical space is their integration into the regional historical narrative. The spatial approach allows, more fully than the approach focused on ethnicity, to present in the narrative the peoples of the region as agents of historical changes in the internal and external milieu in which they exist. Because of the autonomous historical creativity of the Kabardian and Balkar peoples, Kabardino-Balkaria has developed as a historical region in which they carry out their livelihoods and streamline mutual relations. This is their contribution to the history of the North Caucasus, Russia, and the world.

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